USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Two > Part 35
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years his junior, and in 1777 he voluntarily returned to the wigwams of the Wyandots and Myeerah became his bride and "for nearly forty years those two went together as man and wife," the husband, ever the friend of the white people as well as the tribesmen, being called by the latter the "White Eagle." Zane and wife secured a tract of land in the Mad River Valley, where he established a stockade and settlement · called Zanestown, later and better known as Zanes- field. At that place he was living, in 1786, when Ben- jamin Logan came from Kentucky to destroy the Indian towns on the Mad River, and shortly after the above date, Simon Kenton established his home near Zanes- town, where Zane died in 1816, leaving sons and daugh- ters. Such is the backwoods romance as related by Kennedy and substantiated by trustworthy testimony.
Basil Meek, the authoritative historian of Sandusky County, in his notes concerning Tarhe, states the chief's name appears as a witness to the Treaty of Fort Finney (1786) and as a signer to the Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789.) Before the battle of Fallen Timbers, Tarhe sided with Little Turtle in advocating peace but that policy being abandoned he fought with his tribe in the battle and was badly wounded in the arm. Tarhe was the special friend of Logan, and the Wyandot village, the early home of Tarhe-called Solomons- town, near the head of the Great Miami-in the north- western part of what is now Logan County, was not far from Logan's Mingo village on the headwaters of the Scioto. After Wayne's treaty, Tarhe removed from Solomonstown to a location near the present site of Lancaster, where he established an Indian
CHIEF TECUMSEH
The foremost Indian chief of the Ohio Tribes. Born on the Mad River in 1768, killed at the Battle of the Thames, Canada, October 5, 1813. He was one of the bravest warriors and ablest counsellors among the tribes- men in the later Ohio Indian wars. This picture is from the painting supposed to best portray his features. No likeness from life is known to exist. The artist painted this portrait from descriptions by those who knew him. It represents him in the costume of a British Brigadier.
562
THE RISE AND PROGRESS HERMUHT HIHO
BOLD ssdryT oido ody to funds asihal tomolibdTreturned to
became his beschut add groms arolbenson felds big atoire bernardtwo went
ever the friendstring peins adT jeixs of nwund ali mort aabnoxtribesmen, Zane
and wie secur
land to the Mad River
Valley, where b d a stockade and settlement
called Zaneste
and better known as Zanes- Beld. Az thas was living. in 1786, when Ben- Kentucky to destroy the Indian raj and shortly after the above na blished his home near Zanes- date, Simu
in 1816. leaving sons and daugh- kwoode romance as related by
ters. Such
nuted by trustworthy testimony
Kennedy an
Basil Mec mboritarive historian of Sandusky Sincerniny Tarbe, states The chief's cis in the Treaty of Fort Finney In The Thany of Fort Harmar vedle / Vallen Timbers, Tarhd le se udrating peace but that
County, in
Bunte appears
AJ Lee lgbt with his tribe in
village, the com wounded in the arm. Tarhe if Ixgan, and the Wyandor of Tarhe- called Solomons- town, neur the Great Miami-in the north western part of en ww Logan County, was not far from Loganly L village on the headwaters of the Scioro. Alen Wayne's treaty, Tarhe removed from Solomonstowy i cation near the present lite of Lancaster, 0 established an Indian
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Shawnees, he was found in the very forefront and thickest of the assault, while his brother Sauwaseekau, a warrior of distinction, fell fighting by his side.
From the Draper Manuscripts, the source for the authentic biography of the chief by Benjamin Drake, we learn that Tecumseh, destined to a life of relentless but futile struggle in behalf of his race, was born, in 1768, on the banks of the Mad River, in the Shawnee village of Piqua, a settlement we saw destroyed by the expedition (1780) of George Rogers Clark. Certainly no Indian family was so remarkable as that into which Tecumseh made his entry. His mother, Methoa- taska, meaning "a turtle laying eggs in the sand," was probably of the Creek tribe. His father, Pucki- shenoah-or Puckeschinwau-a chief of the Kisca- pocoke clan of the warfaring Shawnees, was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant and on the field, in his dying moments, he committed to his eldest son, Cheeseekau, his father's companion in the battle, the custody of the favorite son Tecumseh, then but six years of age. There were other sons, besides those already mentioned; Nehaseemo, Kumskaukau and Lau- lewasikau-the latter became the noted Prophet, whose activities gave him a place in Ohio Indian annals, second only to that of Tecumseh. To these six brothers there was one sister, Tecumapease, for whom Tecumseh ever displayed the greatest admiration and affection.
For the interesting particulars of the Shawnee's eventful career, the nature of which is indicated by the significance of his name, Tikamthe or Tecumthe- "one who passes across intervening space from one point to another," hence a "meteor" or "shooting
ELKSWATAWA, THE PROPHET
The younger brother of Tecumseh, called the Prophet. His Indian name was Laulewasikau, or the "Loud Voice." When he became a Prophet, he took the name Tenekawau- tawan, or "Open Door," also called Elkswatawa. He claimed to receive revelations from the Great Spirit. He established his quarters at the junction of the Mud and Greenville creeks, site of Greenville. He exerted a great influence over the western tribes. From a painting in the collection at Washington, D. C.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Shawnees, he19 ТАНЯОЯЯ HT AWATAWZHIЯ y forefront and
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FrogH tlsusisvedIH belles -oals"noodnale wuswet for the authentk baM ont to noitonui ont ts vistisup zin bonafidedes Drake, we leating is betiexe Hellingsmotion ere feststoff lentless but futfaisaitnisq n mory
, born, in a notgardasW is foitpollo2
1768, con Tive of the Mad River, in the Shawnee villike of P ttlement we saw destroyed by the expedition (1) \0 of George Rogers Clark. Certainly no IoCan [only was so remarkable as that into which Tecumseh madehis entry. His mother, Methoa- tallin, meaning _ turtle laying eggs in the sand," was probably | the Creek tribe. His father, Pucki- shenoah-or Fu heachinwau-a chief of the Kisca- pocoke clan ofle warfaring Shawnees, was killed in the battle of Tint Pleasant and on the field, in his dying moment he committed to his eldest son, Cheeseekau, Ins father's companion in the battle, the custoily nt The Drurite son Tuaimesh, then but six years of age. There were other sons, besides those already mentioned; Nehaićemo, Kumskaukau and Lau- lewasikau- the latter foame the noted Prophet, whose activities gave him a place in Ohio Indian annals, second only to that .I Tecumseh. To these six brothers there was one eister. 'I'boumapease, for whom Tecumseh ever displayed the greatest admiration and affection.
For the interesting particulars of the Shawnee's eventful career, the nature of which is indicated by the significance of his name, Tikamthe or Tecumthe- "one who passes across intervening space from one point to another,"" hence a "meteor" or "shooting
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
star,"-we refer the reader to the appreciative essay by William Jackson Armstrong, in "Heroes of Defeat," a volume of fine scholarship and rare literary merit.
The youthful Tecumseh was carefully trained, in the customs of peace and the art of war, by Cheesee- kau, who was killed in a campaign against the southern
tribes, during the inter-tribal wars in which Tecumseh received his martial education. We met him watching St. Clair's expedition, and have noted his relation to Wayne's campaign, after which, in 1798, the chief, conquered but not subdued, with his tribesmen, removed to a Delaware village on the White River in Indiana, whence he wandered, at intervals among the tribes of Ohio, in the south and the west. Tradition indulges him many "affairs of the heart," and history weds him to a most beautiful Shawnee half breed woman Mamate by name, the mother of his only child, a boy, Pugeshashewa, born about 1796, who survived his illustrious father and became an officer in the British army. Tecumseh early developed unusual powers of oratory, notable exhibitions of which were displayed at a gathering in Urbana (1799), and at a council (1803), over which Governor Tiffin presided, at Chillicothe, then the capital of the newly admitted State of Ohio.
Meanwhile the Shawnees, scattered in settlements in Ohio and Indiana, concentrated at the juncture of the Mud and Greenville creeks, adjoining the site of Wayne's detested treaty. And here comes into promi- nence Tecumseh's extraordinary and mysterious brother, Laulewasikau, the "Loud Voice," who essayed the role of the Prophet, assuming the name Tenekawau- tawa-with many varieties of spelling-signifying the
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
"Open Door," because he was to unfold the revelations of the Great Spirit, directing the tribal hosts to reject the contaminating customs and beliefs of the white race and to return to the primitive life of the forest. Hundreds from all tribes, even those from distant regions, flocked to hear and accept the gospel recalling them to their forgotten faith and neglected practices. This religious and patriotic revival, Tecumseh turned to his account in the long decreed purpose to reunite the tribes in a confederacy that should be the realiza- tion of the daring dream of Pontiac. The inscrutable ceremonies, half religious, half martial, at Greenville, alarmed the state government at Chillicothe and the National authorities at Washington. Tecumseh, Blue Jacket, Roundhead and Panther, were summoned to Chillicothe, where for many days (1807) they en- deavored by their pleas and explanations to allay the alarm of the citizens of Ohio. On this occasion Tecum- seh in burning rhetoric rehearsed the past wrongs inflicted upon his people, while disclaiming any treach- erous plans in the gatherings at Greenville. In the spring of the following year (1808) Tecumseh and the Prophet removed their headquarters to a tract granted them by the Pottawattomies and Kickapoos, on the Tippecanoe, a branch of the Wabash. The new center was known as the Prophet's Town, and here the teach- ings of the "Open Door" roused the assembled tribes- men to inflammable fanaticism, while Tecumseh, in marvelous journeyings, covering the land from the Everglades of Florida to the sources of the Mississippi, met nation after nation and in periods of intense elo- quence, urged the tribesmen to united action against
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
the white conquerors, who were to be driven from the Northwest Territory, back beyond the Ohio, the natural and just boundary between the two hostile races. Tarhe, among the Ohio tribes, took issue with Tecumseh, whom he charged with working for no good purpose, and the Wyandots refrained from becom- ing participants in the schemes of the Shawnee.
Events rapidly culminated, when in August (1810), in accordance with the summons of Harrison, then territorial governor of Indiana, Tecumseh, with three hundred of his warriors, appeared at Vincennes to give account of his movements so warlike in appear- ance. It was one of the most dramatic scenes in Indian history, in which Tecumseh's eloquence rose to the loftiest heights of savage oratory, but the Vincennes meeting, so spectacular in its incidents and so signi- ficant in its proceedings, closed with the conviction, on the part both of the governor and the chief, that open hostilities were inevitable. The Prophet and his host of warriors were routed by General Harrison and the regular army at Tippecanoe in the summer of 18II, while Tecumseh was absent rallying the tribes in the south. The War of 1812 ensued. Upon that period it is not for us to dwell. It afforded Tecumseh the psychological moment for the fulfillment of his life effort. He would ally his great confederacy to the British cause and the alliance must surely regain the Northwest for the defrauded and defeated tribes- men. At the head of a small band of his tribe the chief drew the first blood of the Americans, in the encounter near Brownstown. Commanding the Indian allies, under General Isaac Brock, Tecumseh was a
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
jubilant witness of the inglorious surrender by General William Hull of Detroit and when Brock the British general, on receiving the American soldiers requested the implacable chief not to allow his excited warriors to ill-treat the prisoners, the chief replied disdainfully, "No! I dispise them too much to meddle with them." But the fear of Brock was groundless for it had ever been the humane policy of Tecumseh to restrain his warriors from all deeds of torture and cruelty in dealing with their captives, nor was he himself ever guilty of wanton bloodshed. In this he stood forth in strik- ing contrast to the customs of his tribe and race. The valor in fight and humanity in victory so character- istic of the intrepid chief were exhibited at the respec- tive sieges of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson, his services in those events meriting him the rank of Briga- dier General in the British army, and as such officer he dictated the plan of action, and commanded the tribal warriors at the decisive Battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. General Henry A. Procter, led the defeated and retiring British force and Indian allies, till they reached the Thames, when Tecumseh refused to further retreat and demanded battle with the Americans. But the waning fortunes of the British gave him faint assurance of the outcome, and the oft-repeated perfidy to the faithful warriors, of his Majesty's craven officials, sank his soul in despair. With the heroic stoicism of his race he faced the inevit- able. Addressing his dusky warriors, as they advanced to the final clash of arms, he said: "Brother Warriors, we are now about to enter an engagement from which I shall never escape; my body will remain on the
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battle field." Unbuckling his sword, he requested, "when my son becomes a noted warrior, give him this." He then removed his British uniform and took his place in line, attired only in the buckskin hunting dress of his people. To the fate of death, in a failing cause, on a foreign field, afar from the forests of his beloved native soil, he would not add the disgrace of wearing as his shroud the insignia of a nation pro- fessedly his friend but really his treacherous foe. Eye-witnesses testify that the clarion tones of the chief were heard above the din of arms, calling upon his followers to "be brave, be brave," then "Tecumseh fell dead and they all ran," said a Pottawattomie chief. The tongue that for years had called aloud at the council fires and 'neath the forest boughs, ever for justice to his people, was stilled forever, nor was there to be other voice to renew the summons to rise and repel the invading whites. For fifty years, a full half century, from the conspiracy of Pontiac to the confederacy of Tecumseh, the war for the possession of the Ohio country had been bitterly waged; the battle of the Thames was the culmination of that contest and with the death of the heroic Shawnee there vanished the last hope of the tribesmen that they might regain the lost lands of their wigwams and hunt- ing-grounds. From now on the irresistible tide of civilization was to sweep the savages across the Father of Waters and yet far beyond where they were to become the helpless wards of the conquering nation.
Such, in terms all too brief, was Tecumseh. Pontiac has been endowed with greater fame, since his bloody deeds were portrayed by the graphic pen of Parkman;
570 RISE AND PROGRESS OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Little Turtle rivalled him in the art of savage war- fare; Joseph Brant outwitted him in the arena of diplomacy; Red Jacket was not his inferior in gifts of eloquence; but in the components of a puissant and regal character, in the dominant instincts of humanity and justice and in unwavering and unselfish devotion to the rights due his race, Tecumseh was "the noblest Roman of them all."
FORT DEFIANCE
Built by General Wayne's army in August, 1794. It stood in the angle formed by the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee rivers. The picture shows the four corner blockhouses, which were connected by a line of strong pickets, outside of which was a wall of earth eight feet thick, and ditch fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep.
670 RISE AND PRAHOVAITAOF THO AMERICAN STATE
LittlesitigtAldtito noitomui primid femtololghsbddài boowage war- muss Mansarena of diplomat logis itis to law of el oider to bbiefed rabbin gifts of eloquence995 test tagi bas spru test nosti dotilf bas plaisant and regal character . Le dominant instincts of humanity and justice and in unwavering and unselfish devotion to the right« due his race, Tecumseh was "the noblest Rorun ul them all."
CHAPTER XXV. THE WESTERN RESERVE
A S narrated in the early pages of our chronicle, the northeastern portion of the domain that was in time to become Ohio, the strip known as the Western Reserve, was the arena in which occurred the first events recorded in Ohio history. Those events, it will be recalled, pertained to the war waged by the terrible Iroquois against the Eries or Cat Nation, as mentioned in the Jesuit Relations. And now in the last pages of our pre-state history we return to the same locality.
Before we enter upon the period of the permanent settlement of this section, it is fitting that we revert to the fate of the Moravians, who were the first to inhabit, though only temporarily, the prospective new Connecticut. We left the Moravian missionaries and their band of converted "Brown Brethren, " exiled from Captives' Town, at Detroit, where they had arrived in the spring of 1782. Major de Peyster, the Canadian Commandant, gave them the alternative of returning to Bethelem (Pa.), the original home of their Mission, or remain in the vicinity of Detroit, under the espionage of the British. They chose the latter, and accepted the friendly offer of the Chippewas, who granted the Moravians an abiding place among their tribesmen on the Huron River, some twenty-five miles from Detroit. This Michigan settlement was called New Gnadenhutten, and here Heckewelder soon joined his companion Zeisberger. After "four years of quiet and measurable success," it was their destiny to con- tinue their wanderings, for the Chippewas had offered them an asylum only until peace might be established between Great Britain and the United States. The
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Huron-or Clinton River-Mission was abandoned in the spring of 1786, and the return to Ohio territory determined upon. In two sloops they were conveyed across Lake Erie and after many "perils in the waters and perils in the wilderness" they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga River-Cayahaga, Heckewelder calls it-they ascended the river "about a dozen miles from the Lake," where they pitched their camp, erected huts and began to plant corn with the intention of pro- ceeding on to the Tuscarawas after harvest season. This temporary station, Loskiel, their historian, calls Pilgerruh, or "Pilgrims Rest." But the "rest" was only for a year, when the settlement, owing to the hostility of the neighboring tribes was transferred west- ward to the River Huron-in Ohio-a few miles from its mouth, near the present site of Milan. Again the camp became a collection of huts that grew rapidly in number into a "thriving town and a center of Christianty." It bore the name of New Salem in the records of the Indian Mission, and for four years- until March, 1791-flourished with a degree of material and spiritual prosperity that seemed to revive the "Golden days" of their early history on the Tuscara- was. Members of the different tribes, from far and near, flocked to hear the Gospel, the preaching of which was attended by numerous conversions, including many chiefs, among them Captain Killbuck-or Gelele- mend-who ever after was a "faithful helper in the church."
It was during the first year of the New Salem sojourn that Congress, just two weeks after the enactment of the Ordinance of 1787 (viz, July 27), passed an act
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
granting the Moravian Indians twelve thousand acres of land adjoining, indeed partly including, their former settlements on the Tuscarawas. And thither they desired to migrate. But the outbreak of hostilities between the American government and the Ohio tribes again compelled the sorely distressed Moravians to seek an asylum under the British flag. This time they found refuge near the mouth of the Detroit River on the Canadian side, where they established themselves for one year, when in May (1792), they took up their abode on the river Thames, building up a snug little village of forty houses, a church and other buildings. At this town, known as Fairfield, peace and happiness reigned for six years, when the time was propitious for the final removal to the land allotted to them on the Tuscarawas. Thither Heckewelder, accompanied by Rufus Putnam and the latter's son, proceeded (1798) to survey the land which was laid out in three plats, called respective- ly the Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrunn and Salem tracts. Of these the Fairfield emigrants and other converts took speedy possession. Zeisberger founded the little settlement of Goshen, some seven miles from Gnaden- hutten, where in 1808 he "entered into eternal rest," his "hoary head crowned with glory." Amid the graves of his devoted red brethren, his mouldering body lies buried in the little "God's acre" by the road- side at the site of Goshen, the scene of his last efforts to Christianize the Ohio savages.
Upon the ground made sacred by the blood of the Moravian martyrs, Heckewelder replanted Gnadenhut- ten, which is now an unpretentious but peaceful and prosperous hamlet. There Heckewelder lived and
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wrought among the Indian converts until 1810, when he resumed his home at Bethlehem. With the death of Zeisberger and the departure of Heckewelder, the Moravian Brethren date their rapid decline and final disappearance. As with the Jesuit missions, so with the Moravian conversions, there were small, if any, permanent results. The personality of the two heroic and pious leaders-whose careers we have followed- held sway over the converted savages, so long as their presence was permitted, but once that spell and influ- ence was removed the progress of Christian civilization among the tribesmen ceased. There were no disciples sufficiently endowed to continue the work.
Connecticut's charter, granted by Charles II. in 1662, confirming and combining former charters and grants, conveyed to that colony all of the lands west of it, to the extent of its breadth, from sea to sea, or "to the South Sea." This strip extended from 41º to 42° 2' north latitude and, cutting through Pennsyl- vania, would have included the northern part of Ohio. But as we have seen, when the discoverers and explorers located the Mississippi, the South Sea became a myth and the western extent of the English colonial grants stopped at the "Father of Waters." In the cession of Connecticut, by its act of May II, 1786, to the United States, of its claimed domain in the Northwest Territory, it reserved to itself the strip which was bounded north by latitude 42° 2', east by the Pennsyl- vania boundary line, south by parallel 41° and west by a meridian line one hundred and twenty miles west of the boundary line of Pennsylvania. This reserva- tion was known as the "Connecticut Western Reserve."
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The disposition to be made of these reserved lands soon became an interesting question to the people of Connecticut for the lands were far from the State that retained them, far for purposes of colonization and far for government by the home authority.
In October (1786), only a month after the cession, the General Assembly of Connecticut, determined to offer for sale the portion of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers. These lands were ordered to be surveyed into townships six miles square; in each township five hundred acres were dedi- cated for the support of schools, and the same quantity to the "support of the Gospel," and two hundred and forty acres in fee simple in every township were promised to the first minister who should settle in it. But the survey as intended above was never made, nor was any sale made except the notable one, in 1788, to General Samuel H. Parsons, of a section lying in the Mahoning Valley, consisting of 25,000 acres and known as the "Salt-Springs Tract." In 1789, Judge Parsons was ap- pointed by the State of Connecticut a commissioner with Governor Oliver Wolcott, and Hon. James Davenport, to hold a treaty with the Wyandots and other tribes of Indians, for the purpose of extinguishing their claim, "the aboriginal title to the lands called the Connecticut Western Reserve," and in the fall of that year (1789) Parsons visited the country with the purpose of arranging for the treaty. While return- ing to his residence, then in Marietta, he was drowned in descending the rapids of the Big Beaver.
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